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Palin-Farah ticket at 1st national tea-party convention

Constitution champions headline 1st national tea-party convention

Chelsea Schilling is a news and commentary editor for WND and a proud U.S. Army veteran. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism and also worked as a news producer at USA Radio Network and as a news reporter for the Sacramento Union.

WND founder Joseph Farah will join former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as speaker at the first national tea-party convention – and he plans to get Americans energized and excited about reclaiming the nation this year from the clutches of “tyrannical central government.”

Tea Party Nation will host the first national tea party convention from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.

Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips, named one of Tennessee’s top 25 political players in 2009, was one of the original tea-party organizers in February 2009 following CNBC anchor Rick Santelli’s outburst from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has helped organize numerous tea parties, and mobilized Tennessee taxpayers in the last year with rallies reaching crowds of more than 10,000 people.

Sarah Palin

“To say we are thrilled Joseph Farah is speaking is an understatement,” Phillips told WND. “He was a tea partier before there was a tea party movement. We’re excited that he will be speaking because a major goal of this convention is to inspire people. Joseph is a tremendously inspirational person and speaker, and he will really fire people up and get them excited about going back to their home states and cities and taking this advocacy to the next level.”

The Tea Party Express will also arrive in Nashville for the convention. Additional sponsors of the conference include American Liberty Alliance, Tea Party Emporium, the Leadership Institute, National Taxpayers Union, American Majority, Surge USA and Eagle Forum.

Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips

Phillips outlined three main goals of the national convention:

1. Organizers plan to equip attendees with information, effective tools and techniques they can bring back to their groups.

2. The convention will help tea party leaders from across the nation network and make connections with people in the movement.

3. The event is intended to provide some unity within the tea party movement so leaders may work together toward a common goal.

“Tea Party Nation doesn’t claim to be the leader of the tea party movement; we’re just a part of the movement,” Phillips said. “We’ve got to work together in 2010 because if we want to beat Obama, Pelosi and Reid this year, we cannot be divided. That’s the biggest thing I want to see come out of this convention – folks getting to know one another and working together, as opposed to some of the regrettable splits we’ve seen over the last few months.”

The convention is open to citizens who have stepped up and taken leadership roles in the tea party movement, including those who would like to be more involved this year. Tea Party Nation has allocated 600 tickets for the convention and 1,100 for the banquet with Palin. Tickets are available at the National Tea Party Convention website, and Phillips said they are selling quickly.

Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.

Registration will take place Thursday, Feb. 4, and several talk show hosts will kick off the convention with a reception and townhall meeting. The event will be followed with live entertainment.

“To be asked to speak at the first national tea party convention is a great honor for me,” Farah said. “I believe the tea party movement is a powerful and righteous social and political force that can help take America back from the grips of out-of-control and tyrannical central government. It’s also a personal privilege for me to be on the same bill with Gov. Sarah Palin and so many other distinguished leaders and friends such as Judge Roy Moore, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Phil Valentine.”

Palin will present her speech Saturday, Feb. 6., at the evening banquet.

Phillips said the convention is an opportunity for grass-roots groups to unite because he believes the movement is set to explode this year.

“I think the tea-party movement will be huge in this upcoming election,” he said.